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Duff batteries?


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32 minutes ago, sharpness said:

I watched that last night, fascinating & frightening at the same time. I liked his battery powered soldering iron. Not so sure about rinsing the case out & tipping it out on the street.

I can remember when you could buy a brazing set just like that with a carbon electrode that you just connected to a 12 volt battery, it use to be in Car Mechanics.

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Great vid, thanks!

 

Very interesting to see how simply constructed a battery is. Raises a really basic question in my mind though. All the plates seem to be made of lead. Surely either the anode or the cathode ought to be something else!

 

Time for a Goggle I think....

 

 

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1 hour ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

Great vid, thanks!

 

Very interesting to see how simply constructed a battery is. Raises a really basic question in my mind though. All the plates seem to be made of lead. Surely either the anode or the cathode ought to be something else!

 

Time for a Goggle I think....

 

 

 

When fully charged, the positive plate is lead dioxide (PbO2), characterised by its chocolate brown colour,  and the negative plate is lead (Pb), characterised by its leaden grey colour.

 

When fully discharged, both plates become lead sulphate (PbSO4)  and become a leaden grey colour.

Edited by cuthound
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Waste not  want not.  At least he uses new plates.

No doubt there is another operation somewhere up the  road where the cell plates are refurbished and reloaded.  Or does even this sort of operation buy them  in ready to go from China?

Didn't see any sign of the electricity supply, but I would bet it either depends on some big crocodile clips up a handy power pole or on a locally made Lister clone driving a generator.

 

N

 

 

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Used to make toy soldiers from lead, yes children were allowed to do stuff like play with molten lead in those days.  The fumes gave me terrible headache.......come to think of it, it's been all downhill since then.

 

 

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1 hour ago, BEngo said:

Waste not  want not.  At least he uses new plates.

 

Did he?

 

Looked to me like he washed off the old ones and cast new tabs onto them...

 

 

 

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27 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Did he?

 

Looked to me like he washed off the old ones and cast new tabs onto them...

 

 

 

 

Yes I think you are right. Unless he changes the active material in the plates, any improvement will be short lived. All he is really doing is washing out any sludge that may be causing internal shorts.

 

When I first started work, BT had a battery workshop in Cornwallis Road, Holloway (all the plates in "cells No.2" were standard, higher capacity batteries had more plates) where they reconditioned plates by replacing the active material.

 

Once VRSLA batteries began to be used in 1980, the workshop was closed and the expertise lost.

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2 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

Great vid, thanks!

 

Very interesting to see how simply constructed a battery is. Raises a really basic question in my mind though. All the plates seem to be made of lead. Surely either the anode or the cathode ought to be something else!

 

Time for a Goggle I think....

 

 

 

The plates are a grid (a bit like a cake cooling try but smaller holes) made of   Lead Antinomy or Lead calcium alloy. I think nowadays some also contain silver. A lead oxide powder is then pressed into the grid a bit like plastering onto chicken wire. Cuthound told us what lead oxide each plate uses.

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59 minutes ago, Markinaboat said:

Fascinating! New plates were unboxed at 3m 12s into the vid. What constitutes new here who knows though!?

 

And at 4.07 it says "Old battery plates after teaching useable", which I took to be poor translation of old battery plates are cleaned and re-used. 

 

 

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7 minutes ago, zenataomm said:

I'm relieved to see he's wearing Safety Sandals

 

More seriously, he seemed to have no fear of the battery acid. Is it actually less dangerous than we in the west are lead to believe? 

 

I know it makes holes in my trousers but that takes a couple of weeks. Maybe if you wash it off your hands every so often it does no harm. Anyone tried??

 

 

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Doesn’t the concentration of the acid vary with charge state ? Must do or we wouldn’t use SG to test the state of charge.  
 

Not very scientific but I seem to think I’ve spilled very small amounts  of battery acid on my hands / fingers and it seemed to take a few minutes before I felt any burning. Not the same as handling plates covered in the stuff....

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